By Joshua Kirby
Shares in EssilorLuxottica fell after revenue growth eased at the start of the year following a boom in smartglasses sales last year.
The Franco-Italian eyewear giant booked 11% organic growth in its top line over the first three months of the year, slowing from the 18% it recorded in the final months of 2025, it said in an update late Wednesday. Last year's exceptional growth was boosted by sales of 7 million pairs of smartglasses over the full year, a huge jump from the 2 million pairs it sold in 2023 and 2024 combined following the launch of the first Ray-Ban model in partnership with tech group Meta, which provides the software.
That initial explosion in sales is now fading, with the smartglasses category contributing an increase in the mid-single digits over the first quarter, finance chief Stefano Grassi told analysts in a call following the update. There have also been questions of supply bottlenecks, with Meta saying at the start of the year it would pause European rollout of smart Ray-Bans on the back of surging demand from Americans.
Paris-listed shares in EssilorLuxottica fell 4.2% in Thursday's opening trading to 193.10 euros.
While investors may have reacted unfavorably to the slowing growth, EssilorLuxottica may in reality prefer to see only a moderate expansion of the share of total sales taken up by smartglasses, analysts at Bernstein wrote in a note. Smartglasses offer a lower margin than the group commands in its traditional eyecare business, in which it enjoys a strong control of the supply chain.
"We would expect EssilorLuxottica to favor a measured approach to wearables growth, prioritizing growth in its own retail channels versus wholesale to secure crucial operating leverage," Bernstein said. "For now, EssilorLuxottica could well straddle the best of both worlds."
The group at the start of the year set out more cautious midterm targets, aiming for "solid growth" in revenue and broadly aligned profit growth, rather than setting numerical targets.
Write to Joshua Kirby at joshua.kirby@wsj.com; @joshualeokirby
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 23, 2026 04:20 ET (08:20 GMT)
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